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Far too interesting for this community!
Damn, that whole situation was a clusterfuck i had no idea about.
Blaming the CIA instead of Belgium is a take. Belgian mercenaries working to support the would be Katangan regime did it, all so a Belgian mining conglomerate could get sweetheart deals. Because Leopold II was not an outlier.
The CIA was operating in the area, and there were plans, but they were caught flat-footed when Mobutu captured Lumumba, and then turned him over to Katangan forces.
Everyone was caught flat-footed again when Mobutu launched yet another coup and took power as dictator, but all the world's monsters quickly adapted.
Fun fact. A couple of years ago a new type of drink took German Christmas markets by storm:
The Lumumba. Hot chocolate with a shot of rum. A brown beverage with a shot (German uses exactly the same metaphor "ein Schuss") in it, named after a murdered African politician.
Given that 99,9% of the German population never heard of Patrice Lumumba and probably can not find the Congo on a map either, it took quite a while for people to understand why the drink despite being delicious is a bit ... distasteful.
Cameraman found the zoom button
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
216 points (100.0% liked)
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